Here’s how to level up your postseason like never before in the NBA App.
The 2025-26 NBA regular season was a record-setting campaign with increased viewership across television, digital and social media, plus historic levels of attendance at NBA arenas.
Here’s a complete look at the highlights from the regular season before the 2026 NBA Playoffs tip off this weekend.
Viewership
• 170 million people in the U.S. watched NBA games across ABC/ESPN, Amazon Prime Video, NBC/Peacock and NBA TV through the regular season, the most in 24 years and an 86% increase vs. last season.
• There were 57 telecasts this season that averaged at least 2 million viewers, the most since the 2011-12 regular season. Nineteen telecasts averaged at least 3 million viewers, the most since the 2012-13 regular season.
• More than 1.3B total hours of live NBA game coverage were consumed on linear and streaming platforms (excluding NBA League Pass) across all measured markets globally, up 93% year-over-year.
Digital & Social
• The league generated a record 228 billion views on social media this season, up +13% YOY (per: Videocites).
• In its first season, Tap to Watch drove fans to nearly 20 million live game streams, with nationally televised games making up 75% of that engagement. Usage was driven largely by partners such as Google, social media platforms and the NBA App.
• Watch hours per user on the NBA App increased by 20% this season.
• LeBron James finished the season as the most-viewed player on social media, with 2.85 billion views. The Top 10 list of most-viewed players is available here.
Attendance
• The NBA set a league record for total attendance across a three-season span (2023-24 to 2025-26), exceeding 22.18 million fans in total attendance in team arenas for the third time ever.
Business
• For the fifth consecutive year, the NBA reached record revenue in the Marketing Partnerships and Media Sales business.
• In a record-breaking year for the franchise, NBA 2K26 is officially the No. 1 selling sports game in the United States and the second-highest selling title across all genres.
• Stephen Curry and the New York Knicks secured the top spots on the NBA’s Top-Selling Jersey and Team Merchandise lists, respectively, for the 2025-26 regular season. More details are available here.
In-season viewership highlights:
• NBC Sports’ NBA coverage began with a record-setting night for NBA Tip-Off on Oct. 21, which featured the first opening night double overtime game in 20 years and delivered the largest “NBA Tip-Off” doubleheader audience since 2010 (excluding 2011 opening games on Christmas holiday) with an average of 5.6 million viewers across NBC and Peacock.
• ESPN generated its most-watched NBA Thanksgiving Eve audience in six years, since 2019, on Wednesday, November 26. The inaugural tripleheader averaged nearly 2.1 million viewers, up 54% from last year’s Thanksgiving Eve doubleheader.
• More than 40 million people in the U.S. watched Emirates NBA Cup 2025 Group Play games across Amazon Prime Video, NBC/Peacock and ESPN, up 90% from last year and the most-watched Group Play in the event’s three-year history.
• The first exclusive Amazon Prime Video NBA Cup final in December 2025 averaged 3.07 million viewers, a 3% increase over the 2024 championship (2.99 million on ABC).
• ESPN delivered its largest average NBA Christmas audience since 2018 across its platforms. The five-game slate on Thursday, December 25, averaged 5.5 million viewers, up 4% from 2024. The Christmas games reached 47.2 million fans, up 45% from 2024. It is the largest audience reach for ESPN’s Christmas NBA games since 2010, excluding the season-opening Christmas Day in 2011.
• Mavericks-Knicks and Thunder-Cavaliers NBA regular season games on MLK Day (Jan. 19) delivered the league’s two largest afternoon audiences on MLK Day on record (dating back to 1992).
• The first NBA All-Star Game presented by NBC Sports since 2002 delivered the largest NBA All-Star audience since 2011, averaging 8.8 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, and Telemundo, according to preliminary Nielsen data and digital data from Adobe Analytics.
• More than 46 million people in the U.S. watched NBA All-Star weekend across NBC platforms and ESPN, the most in 24 years and more than triple last season.
• The Feb. 22 Celtics-Lakers game on NBC was the most-watched regular-season Sunday night game since April 2, 2000, averaging 5.6 million viewers across ABC, Peacock and Telemundo. It was also the most-watched NBA regular-season game since 2017 (excluding Christmas Day).
• Knicks-Thunder on March 29 delivered 3.4 million average viewers, marking the network’s 10th game with at least 3 million viewers, the most for any network since the 2018-29 regular season.
